Shared Value: Creating Competitive Advantage

Richard Welford
Chairman, CSR Asia

Richard Welford is one of the founders and the chairman of CSR Asia. He has over twenty years of experience working in the fields of environmental management and social responsibility. He was one of the early pioneers in developing social audit and reporting methodologies with UK-based organisations such as The Body Shop, IBM and Eastern Electricity in the 1990s. From 2002 to 2010 Richard was also a professor at the University of Hong Kong and headed up the Corporate Environmental Governance Programme. He has worked with some of the leading multinational enterprises and local companies and NGOs in Asia including Disney, CLP, Nike, Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, Swire Pacific, Cathay Pacific, HP, IBM, HSBC, Citigroup, Accor, Credit Suisse, UBS, P&G and Adidas. 

Richard’s work has had a strong emphasis on environmental sustainability and social justice. He has worked with companies on developing their CSR strategies and with NGOs on developing private sector engagement plans. He has also worked on policies and implementation plans covering a range of issues including governance, supply chain risks, human rights, community investment, poverty alleviation, conservation and biodiversity. 

Richard is also a Board Director of a number of other organisations including ERP Environment, the Compliance Practitioners Association and AIDS Concern.